In the context of the environmental ethics debate, anthroporelational means that only human beings have the ability to attribute (whatever kind of) value to nature. Nature's value thus always has to be understood in its relation to the human being, who assigns and respects this value. Human beings alone can derive rationales for actions or for rights to protection from goods and values. A distinction has to be made between exclusively-anthroporelational and trans-antrhoporelational concepts. For proponents of the first approach, the value of nature or biodiversity exclusively lies in providing humans with goods. Nature thus deserves protection because of its value for human beings. Trans-anthroporelational approaches, on the other hand, value nature or, depending on the particular view, also biological diversity for its own sake. Natural organisms and systems deserve protection, not because of their being goods which are useful to human beings, but because of the intrinsic value that is assigned to them on account of their properties or their existence.